Weal savours championship season

The shortest off-season of Jordan Weal’s career has been a long time coming. The 23-year-old centre just completed his first extended playoff run since minor hockey, leading the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs to a Calder Cup title.

REGINA — The shortest off-season of Jordan Weal’s career has been a long time coming.

The 23-year-old centre just completed his first extended playoff run since minor hockey, leading the AHL’s Manchester Monarchs to a Calder Cup title.

It was a welcome change for Weal, who missed the playoffs in each of his first three seasons with the Regina Pats before suffering a first-round loss in his final WHL campaign. That was followed by two more opening-round exits in his first two pro seasons with Manchester, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings.

“Winning is so much fun,” offered Weal, who was named the AHL’s playoff MVP after recording 10 goals and 22 points in 19 games. “You get used to it when you’re a little younger. Then in junior we had a tough time winning for our first three years, but we got it back my last year.

“I was lucky to go to a team with a lot of depth in the American League. Now that we won it, you realize it’s a grind (to go deep in the playoffs). It was a lot of work but you also believe at the same time that you can get the job done. It all came together at the end.”

The Monarchs had some good teams in the past but couldn’t quite get over the hump. Their breakthrough season coincided with the arrival of head coach Mike Stothers, a former bench boss of Weal’s former rivals, the Moose Jaw Warriors.

“I was pretty surprised when I found out the old Moose Jaw coach was coming to coach us but he did a great job,” said Weal. “He had a very calm demeanour and I think that helped us in tense situations. It was a big part of our playoff success.”

Ironically, Stothers was the head coach of the Warriors when they eliminated Weal’s Pats in the first round of the 2012 WHL playoffs. Regina’s head coach at the time was Pat Conacher, who’s now the director of hockey operations with the AHL’s Utica Comets.

Weal’s Monarchs defeated Conacher’s Comets in the AHL final.

“It was cool,” Weal said. “The hockey world is definitely a small world.”

It’s getting larger for the Monarchs, who will be relocated next season to Ontario, Calif., switching places with L.A.’s ECHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.

Weal was pleased to help the team go out with a bang.

“The fans were awesome in the playoffs,” he said. “It’s pretty special when it’s your last year there and you can win it for the city, especially for the fans who are there every game. When you can do it for those people and really make them happy, it’s a pretty cool feeling.”

The move to California makes sense for the Kings, who will eliminate the burden of cross-country travel when transferring players between clubs. Weal was called up on the final weekend of the regular season but — due to some last-minute roster shuffling — didn’t get a chance to make his NHL debut.

“It would have been good (to play) but, whatever happened, it was a fun weekend,” he said. “I got to rest up a little bit. That was actually very valuable for me. I felt refreshed going into the playoffs.”

It paid off with an MVP performance.

Weal plans to take a couple of weeks to recharge his batteries before getting back to work in preparation for next season. Based upon his AHL accomplishments, the former WHL star appears to be knocking at the Kings’ door.

“I believe I can play there,” said Weal, who had 20 goals and 69 points in 73 regular-season games. “I just have to keep working, keep getting better.

“It’s not something that happens overnight. It’s over years of fine-tuning parts of your game — your physical abilities and your mental abilities. Hopefully in the end you can develop into an NHL player.”

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